$61 billion payoff from Eagle Ford

Updated 1:34 am, Wednesday, March 27, 2013

AUSTIN — Last year, the Eagle Ford Shale had a $61 billion impact and supported 116,000 jobs across a 20-county swath of South Texas — a once-sleepy region increasingly defined by an oil and gas boom.

The latest numbers from an ongoing University of Texas at San Antonio study continue to show a ballooning financial effect as the industry races to drill oil wells in the region.

The results of the study were released Tuesday at a meeting at the Capitol of the House Energy Caucus and Eagle Ford Shale Caucus, a group of South Texas lawmakers hoping to bring attention to the road, water, health, housing and other infrastructure needs brought on by the influx of workers and truck traffic into the region.

It calculates the direct economic impacts of oil and gas exploration, as well as the so-called indirect and “induced” economic activity created from things such as service companies building warehouses and offices or workers spending their paychecks.